does nyu have a good creative writing program

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Program of Study (CAS Bulletin)

Creative writing (2022 - 2024).

The minor in creative writing offers undergraduates the opportunity to sharpen their skills while exploring the full range of literary genres, including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. All students must complete 16 points of coursework in creative writing in order to fulfill the requirements of the minor.

The introductory workshop Creative Writing: Introduction to Prose and Poetry (CRWRI-UA 815, 4 points) or the study away course Creative Writing (CRWRI-UA 9815, 4 points) is generally the required foundational course, to be followed by 12 additional points from the program's CRWRI-UA course offerings.

However, students who begin their minor by taking one of the program's 8-point summer intensives—Writers in New York (CRWRI-UA 818, 819, or 835), Writers in Paris (CRWRI-UA 9818 or 9819), or Writers in Florence (CRWRI-UA 9828 or 9829)—are not required to take the introductory workshop (CRWRI-UA 815, CRWRI-UA 9815, or equivalent). Following completion of one of these 8-point intensives, students may take advanced coursework in the same genre as their summer intensive and/or move directly into an intermediate workshop in an alternative genre. Students may also repeat an 8-credit summer intensive to complete the 16-credit minor. Intermediate and advanced workshops may be taken three times for credit.

The creative writing minor must be completed with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 (C). No credit toward the minor is granted for grades of C- or lower, although such grades will be computed into the grade point average of the minor, as well as into the overall grade point average. No course to be counted toward the minor may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis.

To declare the minor : Students in the College of Arts and Science may declare a creative writing minor by completing the minor declaration form on the program's website. Students in other NYU schools may declare their minors on Albert or as directed by their home schools. The program recommends that all creative writing minors contact the undergraduate programs manager in the semester prior to graduation to verify that their minor declaration is on record and that they have fulfilled (or have enrolled in) all of the appropriate courses for the minor.

Policy on Course Substitutions

Students may petition to apply a maximum of one outside course toward the minor, either as the introductory prerequisite (equivalent to CRWRI-UA 815 or 9815) or as an elective. An outside course is any NYU creative writing course without a CRWRI-UA rubric. To petition to substitute an outside course, students must complete the course substitution petition form (available on the program's website) and provide the course syllabus (as described on the petition form). The undergraduate programs manager will review the submitted syllabus to verify course level and determine substitution eligibility. Students must petition for course substitution prior to registration.

If the program pre-approves a non-NYU course for substitution, it can only be counted toward the minor if 1. the Office of the Associate Dean for Students in CAS has also approved the course credit for transfer, and 2. the student receives a grade of C or better.

Students wishing to begin the creative writing minor while studying away at an NYU site should register for Creative Writing (CRWRI-UA 9815) or, if studying away in the summer, for one of the 8-point intensives offered in Paris and Florence (CRWRI-UA 9818, 9819, 9828, or 9829). These courses are not considered outside courses and will automatically be counted toward the creative writing minor. All other creative writing courses taken away require a petition for substitution and are subject to approval by the program.

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Creative Writing

The Creative Writing concentration is designed for beginner through experienced writers who wish to develop their craft. Through studio classes in poetry, prose, and performance, you will concentrate on generating texts and learning the conventions of particular genres and forms. You also will participate in interdisciplinary humanities seminars that bring together reading, writing, theory, and method.

Build Your Audience

Improve as a writer with practice and feedback and increase your audience through publication in our literary and arts journal, Dovetail.

Faculty Contact

Dr. Clif Hubby

(212) 992-8397

[email protected]. 

Requirements

Creative writing concentration: craft studios category.

Students select four credits from Craft Studios and four credits from Workshops and an additional eight credits from either category.

• CWRG1-UC5243 The Craft of Playwriting 4
• CWRG1-UC5242 Poetry Studio 4
• CWRG1-UC5241 Prose Studio 4

Creative Writing Concentration: Workshops Category

Students select four credits from Workshops and four credits from Craft Studios and an additional eight credits from either category.

• CWRG1-UC5277 Creative Nonfiction Workshop 4
• CWRG1-UC5271 Fiction Workshop 4
• CWRG1-UC5272 Poetry Workshop 4
• CWRG1-UC5280 Writing for Children & Adolescents 4
• CWRG1-UC5275 Writing for The Screen 4
• CWRG1-UC5273 Writing for The Theater 4
• MEST1-UC6050 Digital Storytelling 4
• MEST1-UC6013 Writing for Media and Communication 4

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Creative Writing

Degrees and fields of study.

• M.F.A. in Creative Writing - Fiction
• M.F.A.  in Creative Writing - Poetry
• M.F.A.  in Creative Writing - Creative Nonfiction
• M.F.A.  in Low Residency Writers Workshop in Paris Program - Fiction
• M.F.A. in Low Residency Writers Workshop in Paris Program - Poetry
• M.F.A. in Low Residency Writers Workshop in Paris Program - Creative Nonfiction

Application Deadlines

Applications and all supporting materials must be  submitted online by 5PM  Eastern Time. If a listed deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or U.S. federal holiday, then the next business day will be the actual deadline.

Creative Writing Programs

• December 18 : Fall admission

Writers Workshop in Paris Programs

• September 1 : January residency (January term application)
• March 1 : July residency (summer application)

Requirements

In addition to the general application requirements, the department specifically requires:

Test Scores

• Please do not send GRE test scores — they will not be reviewed by our Admissions Committee.

TOEFL/IELTS

Applicants must submit official TOEFL or IELTS scores unless they:

Are a native English speaker; OR

Are a US citizen or permanent resident; OR

Have completed (or will complete) a baccalaureate or master's degree at an institution where the language of instruction is English.

Statement of Academic Purpose

In a concisely written statement, please describe your past and present work as it relates to your intended field of study, your educational objectives, and your career goals. In addition, please include your intellectual and professional reasons for choosing your field of study and why your studies/research can best be done at the Graduate School of Arts and Science at NYU. The statement should not exceed two double-spaced pages.

Writing Sample

A creative writing sample is required. It should not exceed 25 double-spaced pages for fiction and nonfiction applicants and 10 single-spaced pages for poetry applicants. The font size should be 12 point or larger.

Useful Links

• GSAS Bulletin
• Department Website
• Email [email protected]
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• Back to Programs, Requirements and Deadlines

The Graduate School of Arts and Science reserves the right to change this information at any time. This page supersedes all previous versions.

Last updated June 2024.

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NYU Creative Writing Program

New york, united states.

The Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University has distinguished itself for more than three decades as a leading national center for the study of literature and writing. The program enables students to develop their craft while working closely with some of today's finest poets and writers. Students also have an opportunity to enjoy America's most literary terrain, benefiting from the extensive cultural resources of the University and New York City.

Each year the faculty selects a talented group of writers and offers them rigorous and supportive teaching. Most candidates take one workshop and one other course each semester and complete the program in two years; only one writing workshop may be taken per semester. In the final semester, students present a creative thesis consisting of a substantial body of finished work in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction.

The NYU Creative Writing program provides an environment which enables students to work seriously at their craft and, through outreach programs, the literary journal Washington Square, and public readings, bring the art of writing to the larger community of New York City. This is a serious community of writers engaged in an exceptional program of study.

Washington Square is the literary review of New York University's Graduate Creative Writing Program. A biannual literary magazine, it is staffed and edited by CWP students. It includes work by established writers as well as NYU alumni. It sponsors a student reading series open to the public and enables students to experience working on a literary magazine in all phases of its production.

NYU's Creative Writing Program offers a prestigious literary reading series, free and open to the public. (Support is provided by NY Community Trust, the NY State Council on the Arts, Poets & Writers, Inc., Poetry Society of America, the NYU Book Center, and many more.) Guest writers are invited to meet informally with students during their visits. Recent guests have included André Aciman, Kaveh Akbar, Donald Antrim, Amy Bloom, Jericho Brown, Anne Carson, Alexander Chee, Susan Choi, Sandra Cisneros, Lydia Davis, Stuart Dybek, Mark Doty, Deborah Eisenberg, Melissa Febos, Joshua Ferris, Rivka Galchen, Jorie Graham, Terrance Hayes, Marie Howe, Etgar Keret, Maxine Hong Kingston, Rachel Kushner, Dorothea Lasky, Victor LaValle, Kiese Laymon, Jonathan Lethem, Sam Lipsyte, Patricia Lockwood, Layli Long Soldier, Carmen Maria Machado, James McBride, Dinaw Mengestu, Claire Messud, Lorrie Moore, Eileen Myles, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharon Olds, Morgan Parker, Carl Phillips, Claudia Rankine, Karen Russell, Tracy K. Smith, Gary Shteyngart, Edmund White, and Colson Whitehead.

Students may apply for fellowships that involve teaching in literary outreach programs. These programs, which have become national models for excellence in literary outreach, include The Starworks Fellowship Program, The Goldwater Writing Workshop, and the Veterans Writing Workshop.

Contact Information

58 West 10th Street Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House New York New York, United States 10011 Phone: 2129988816 Email: [email protected] https://as.nyu.edu/cwp.html

Minor / Concentration in Creative Writing +

Undergraduate program director.

The Minor in Creative Writing offers undergraduates the opportunity to hone their skills while exploring the full range of literary genres including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The Minor is a sixteen-point credit load consisting of three to four creative writing courses. V39.0815 Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction & Poetry (or V39.9815 Creative Writing, or equivalent) is generally the foundational course, to be followed by twelve additional points in the form of three higher-level workshops (Intermediate/Advanced/Master Class; four points each) or one higher-level workshop combined with one of our summer intensives (Writers in New York or Writers in Paris; eight points each).

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

The Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University has distinguished itself for more than two decades as a leading national center for the study of literature and writing. The program enables students to develop their craft while working closely with some of today's finest poets and writers. Students also have an opportunity to enjoy America's most literary terrain, benefiting from the extensive cultural resources of the University and New York City.

Washington Square Review is the literary review of New York University's Graduate Creative Writing Program. A biannual literary magazine, it is staffed and edited by CWP students. It includes work by established writers as well as NYU alumni. It sponsors a student reading series open to the public and enables students to experience working on a literary magazine in all phases of its production.

NYU's Creative Writing Program offers a prestigious literary reading series, free and open to the public. (Support is provided by NY Community Trust, the NY State Council on the Arts, Poets & Writers, Inc., the NYU Book Center, and many more.) Guest writers are invited to meet informally with students during their visits. Recent guests have included Andre Aciman, Fred Moten, Claire Messud, Carl Phillips, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Ladan Osman, Jenny Offill, Susan Choi, Khaled Mattawa, Layli Long Soldier, Chang rae-Lee, Curtis Sittenfeld, Pamela Sneed, Patricia Lockwood, Melissa Febos, Rachel Cusk, Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, Eliot Weinberger, Douglas Kearney, Kaveh Akbar, and Maggie Nelson, among many others.

Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds is a previous director of the Creative Writing Program at NYU. Her first book of poetry, Satan Says, received the San Francisco Poetry Center Award. Her second book, The Dead and the Living, was both the Lamont Poetry Selection for 1983 and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the author of The Gold Cell; The Father; The Wellspring; Blood, Tin, Straw; The Unswept Room; Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980- 2002; One Secret Thing; Odes; and most recently, Arias, which was a finalist for the T.S. Eliot Prize. In 2012, her collection Stag's Leap was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. She received a Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Grant in 1993, part of which was designated for the NYU workshop program at Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island. In 1997, she received the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award. From 1998-2000 she was the New York State Poet Laureate. Professor Olds holds the Erich Maria Remarque Professorship at NYU.

https://as.nyu.edu/cwp/graduate/faculty.html

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975. Her first novel, White Teeth, was the winner of The Whitbread First Novel Award, The Guardian First Book Award, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, and The Commonwealth Writers' First Book Award. Her second novel, The Autograph Man, won The Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize. Zadie Smith's third novel, On Beauty, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won The Commonwealth Writers' Best Book Award (Eurasia Section) and the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her most recent novel, Swing Time, was published in 2016. She is the editor of an anthology of short stories entitled The Book Of Other People and has published several collections of short stories including Martha and Hanwell (2005), and Grand Union (2019), as well as several collections of essays including Changing My Mind (2009), Feel Free: Essays (2018), and the most recent Intimations: Six Essays (2020). She was formerly the New Books columnist for Harper's Magazine. Zadie Smith is a graduate of Cambridge University and has taught at Harvard and Columbia universities. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She became a tenured professor of fiction at NYU in 2010.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the bestselling novel Everything Is Illuminated, named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and the winner of numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize. His other novels include Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and, most recently, Here I Am. He is also the author of the nonfiction books, Eating Animals, and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast (2019). Foer was one of Rolling Stone's "People of the Year" and Esquire's "Best and Brightest,” and was included in The New Yorker magazine's "20 Under 40" list of writers. He lives in Brooklyn.

Matthew Rohrer

Matthew Rohrer is the author of The Sky Contains the Plans (Wave Books, 2020), The Others (Wave Books, 2017), which was the winner of the 2017 Believer Book Award, Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015), Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. With Joshua Beckman and Anthony McCann he wrote the secret book Gentle Reader! It is not for sale. Octopus Books published his action/adventure chapbook-length poem They All Seemed Asleep in 2008. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994.

His poems have been widely anthologized and have appeared in many journals. He's received the Hopwood Award for poetry and a Pushcart prize, and was selected as a National Poetry Series winner, and was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. Recently he has participated in residencies/ performances at the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) and the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle).

Matthew Rohrer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was raised in Oklahoma, and attended universities in Ann Arbor, Dublin, and Iowa City. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at NYU and lives in Brooklyn.

Darin Strauss

Darin Strauss is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Chang and Eng, The Real McCoy, More Than it Hurts You, the NBCC-winning memoir, Half a Life, the comic-book series, Olivia Twist, and most recently the acclaimed novel, The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story (Random House, 2020). A recipient of a National Book Critics Circle Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Library Association Award, and numerous other prizes, Strauss has written screenplays for Disney, Gary Oldman, and Julie Taymor. His work has been translated into fourteen languages and published in nineteen countries, and he is a Clinical Professor at the NYU Creative Writing Program.

Deborah Landau

Deborah Landau (Director) is the author of four collections of poetry: Soft Targets (winner of the 2019 Believer Book Award), The Uses of the Body and The Last Usable Hour, all Lannan Literary Selections from Copper Canyon Press, and Orchidelirium, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye for the Robert Dana Anhinga Prize for Poetry. Her other awards include a Jacob K Javits Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Uses of the Body was featured on NPR's All Things Considered, and included on "Best of 2015" lists by The New Yorker, Vogue, BuzzFeed, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. A Spanish edition was published by Valparaiso Edici?ones in 2017. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Poetry, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, and The Best American Poetry, and included in anthologies such as Resistance, Rebellion, Life: 50 Poems Now, Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation, Not for Mothers Only, The Best American Erotic Poems, and Women's Work: Modern Poets Writing in English. Landau was educated at Stanford University, Columbia University, and Brown University, where she received a Ph.D. in English and American Literature. She is a professor and director of the Creative Writing Program at New York University.

The Uses of the Body was featured on NPR's All Things Considered, and included on "Best of 2015" lists by The New Yorker, Vogue BuzzFeed, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. A Spanish edition is forthcoming from Valparaiso Ediciones.

Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Tin House, Poetry, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, selected for The Best American Poetry, and included in anthologies such as Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation, Not for Mothers Only, The Best American Erotic Poems, and Women's Work: Modern Poets Writing in English.

Landau was educated at Stanford University, Columbia University, and Brown University, where she was a Javits Fellow and received a Ph.D. in English and American Literature. She teaches in and directs the Creative Writing Program at New York University, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, sons, and daughter.

Nathan Englander

Nathan Englander's most recent novel is kaddish.com. He is also the author of the Dinner at the Center of the Earth, the collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, as well as the internationally bestselling story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and the novel The Ministry of Special Cases (all published by Knopf/Vintage). He was the 2012 recipient of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for What We Talk About. His short fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Vogue, and Esquire, among other places. His work has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories and numerous editions of The Best American Short Stories, including 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. Translated into twenty-two languages, Englander was selected as one of “20 Writers for the 21st Century” by The New Yorker, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. He’s been a fellow at the Dorothy & Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and at The American Academy of Berlin. In 2012 Englander's translation of the New American Haggadah (edited by Jonathan Safran Foer) was published by Little Brown. He also co-translated Etgar Keret's Suddenly A Knock at the Door and Fly Already, published by FSG. His play The Twenty-Seventh Man premiered at the Public Theater in 2012, and his new play, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, winner of a 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, and the 2020 Blanche and Irving Laurie Theatre Visions Fund Prize, was commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater and was supposed to be running at The Old Globe in San Diego right now—sigh. He is Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University and lives with his family in Toronto.

Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes’s most recent publications include American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin (Penguin 2018) and To Float In The Space Between: Drawings and Essays in Conversation with Etheridge Knight (Wave, 2018). To Float In The Space Between was winner of the Poetry Foundation’s 2019 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism and a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin won the Hurston/Wright 2019 Award for Poetry and was a finalist the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, the 2018 National Book Award in Poetry, the 2018 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, and the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Hayes is a Professor of English at New York University.

Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She has published numerous essays and memoirs, novellas, plays, children's and young adult fiction, and dozens of works of short fiction, poetry, and fiction, including We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde (a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize), as well as the New York Times bestsellers The Falls (winner of the 2005 Prix Femina Etranger) and The Gravedigger’s Daughter, A Book of American Martyrs, and the most recent, Hazards of Time Travel, My Life as a Rat, and Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. Her most recent works, published with HarperCollins, include the poetry collection American Melancholy (2021) and a collection of stories The (Other) You (2021). Her next novel Breathe will be published in August 2021. In 2013, she received the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection for Black Dahlia and White Swan. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Catherine Barnett

Catherine Barnett is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, and a Pushcart Prize. Her most recent collection, Human Hours, was published in 2018 by Graywolf Press and received the Believer Book Award in Poetry. She is also the author of Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (Alice James Books, 2004), winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award, and The Game of Boxes (Graywolf Press, 2012), which received the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets for an outstanding second book. Barnett has taught at Barnard, Princeton, and Hunter, and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU.

Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published to major acclaim in 1993. It has been translated into thirty-four languages and made into a feature film. In 2003, Eugenides received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002). Middlesex also won the WELT-Literaturpreis of Germany and the Great Lakes Book Award, and it was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, France’s Prix Medici, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His third novel, The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011), was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The New Republic, Publisher's Weekly, and numerous other publications. His latest book, the story collection Fresh Complaint (FSG, 2017), was a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, The Guardian, NPR, and others. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, Best American Short Stories, The Gettysburg Review, and Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists.” Eugenides is the recipient of many awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and the Henry D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018. He taught creative writing at Princeton for many years before joining the NYU Creative Writing Program as a tenured full professor and the Lewis and Loretta Glucksman Professor in American Letters. Eugenides has been inducted into The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

http://as.nyu.edu/cwp/graduate/Faculty1.html

Katie Kitamura

Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is Intimacies. Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award, it is a Barack Obama Summer Reading selection and a New York Times Editors’ choice. Her third novel, A Separation, was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori. She is also the author of Gone To The Forest and The Longshot, both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages and is being adapted for film and television. A recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and Santa Maddalena, Katie has written for publications including The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.

Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru is a Clinical Professor in the Creative Writing Program. He holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University and an MA in Philosophy and Literature from Warwick University. He is the author of five novels, including White Tears, a finalist for the PEN Jean Stein Award, the Kirkus Prize, the Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, One Book New York, the Prix du Livre Inter étranger, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His latest novel Red Pill was published in 2020 by Knopf. He is also the author of The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions, Gods Without Men and a short story collection, Noise. His novella Memory Palace was presented as an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2013. His work has been translated into over twenty languages. His short stories and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Guardian, New York Review of Books, Granta, Bookforum, October and Frieze. He has written screenplays, radio drama, and experimental work using field recordings and voice-to-text software. He has taught at Hunter College and Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. He has been a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He is a past deputy president of English PEN, a judge for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize and has been a frequent presenter, interviewer and guest on television and radio.

Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine is a recipient of the 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, and the author of six collections including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely; three plays including HELP, which premiered in March of 2020 at The Shed, NYC, and The White Card, and the editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. She also co-produces a video series, “The Situation,” alongside John Lucas, and is the founder of the Open Letter Project: Race and the Creative Imagination. In 2016, she co-founded The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII). In addition to the MacArthur, her numerous awards and honors include the Forward Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Her most recent book is Just Us: An American Conversation (Graywolf, 2020). A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Claudia Rankine joined the NYU Creative Writing Program as a tenured Professor in Fall 2021.

Publications & Presses +

Washington Square Review

Visiting Writers Program +

Nick Laird, Nadifa Mohamed, Ocean Vuong, Marie-Helene Bertino, Kiran Desai, Alex Dimitrov, Uzodinma Iweala, David Lipsky, Leigh Newman, Idra Novey, Meghan O'Rourke, Julie Orringer, Jana Prikryl, Jess Row, Nicole Sealey, Parul Sehgal, Brandon Taylor, Hannah Tinti, Phillip B. Williams

Reading Series +

NYU Reading Series ( http://as.nyu.edu/cwp/reading-series.html )

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Creative Writing Community Persists Despite Lack of Major

The home page of NYU’s Creative Writing Program is impressive at first glance. Prominently featuring a photo of a contemplative Zadie Smith and, just below it, an interior shot of the ever-charming Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, the program promises world-class instruction in an intimate setting.

The MFA program consistently churns out critically acclaimed writers , such as recent graduate and Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, among many others, and makes the top five of MFA program rankings.

The undergraduate program ranks No. 3 in College Magazine’s September 2018 list  of 10 colleges for writers, and No. 8 in The Adroit Journal’s 2019 ranking . An August 2019 PrepScholar blog post titled “The 12 Best Creative Writing Colleges and Programs” lists NYU as a 13th “bonus school.”  

Alex Heimbach, the author of the post, wrote, “I didn’t include NYU in the main list because it doesn’t have a dedicated creative writing major, but it’s a great school for aspiring writers nonetheless, offering one of the most impressive creative writing faculties in the country and all the benefits of a Manhattan location.”  

It’s possible that the lack of a distinct major is deterring otherwise interested young writers from choosing to cultivate their talents at NYU rather than the other schools — Emerson College, Emory University and Washington University in St. Louis, to name a few of NYU’s most direct competitors — included on such lists. WSN spoke to five students on the creative writing track about this, as well as the state of the undergraduate program overall.

Considering the international repute of the MFA program, a number of students felt that a major in the undergraduate program was not only warranted but also highly feasible.

“They wouldn’t need to change that much to make a major possible,” CAS senior Griffin Vrabeck said. “They literally just need to write it down on paper that it’s an offering, and then boom. They have all the classes, all the resources to make it happen.”  

CAS junior Anastasia Foley said, “I think that the interest is there. And it would attract more students to the humanities department.”

Others found it a matter of allowing students the freedom to explore their passion, such as CAS junior Cassandra Rohr. “If someone’s life and blood is creative writing,” Rohr said, “they should be able to explore that path in its entirety.”

While torn on whether or not a creative writing major should be offered, CAS senior Leah Muncy defended the English major, pointing out the importance of an academic background in literature for aspiring writers as opposed to jumping straight to writing.  

“It’s important to study the evolution of writing, which author or tradition you’re invoking if you decide to omit, say, grammatical rules or to mess around with the form,” Muncy said. “People sometimes don’t realize that the reason why certain literary works are considered ‘great’ is because the work was very much tethered to its time.”  

She cited Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” — a poem he famously read aloud at Washington Square Park in 1996 — as an example of a work which was innovative for the time, but wouldn’t cause a stir today.

  “It’s not scandalous to write poems like that anymore,” Muncy said. “You’re not pushing the limitations of the form. Ginsberg did it first. The English major gives you the awareness that a creative writing major may not.”  

CAS junior Noah Borromeo agreed, saying “I love that the department requires us to drench ourselves in literature,” but adding that the concentration, or potential major, “would benefit from more classes tailored toward writing and craft, aside from the workshops.”

“I’ve found that how well the class goes is more dependent on who is in the class, and less dependent on the actual professor or the program itself,” Muncy said.  

A few students said that more selective classes, or simply some classes reserved only for those on the creative writing track, would give serious students an opportunity to work on their craft with more like-minded peers.  

“The creative writing classes are of mixed majors,” Borromeo said. “Meaning some people aren’t there with a concentration in creative writing, or even an English major, which is not a bad thing at all, but I think the students whose concentrations are creative writing might benefit from majors-only sections.”  

Vrabeck felt similarly, attributing what he sees as a lack of community within the program to the “lack of requirements for creative writing students,” as “there aren’t necessarily a lot of classes in which you’re surrounded only by creative writers.” The core classes of the English program — Literatures in English I, II, III and IV — on the other hand, are open exclusively to English majors.

Currently, the English major with a concentration in creative writing only requires two creative writing workshops, culminating in a senior capstone project. The other option for English majors is the concentration in literary studies, which doesn’t require any workshop credits. It does require a course in both British Literature before 1800 and Critical Theories and Methods, while the creative writing concentration requires only one or the other.  

The minor requires 16 points of coursework in creative writing. While advisors encourage those in the creative writing concentration to pursue the minor as well, it’s perhaps counterintuitive that the minor requires twice as many workshop credits as the major track.

Despite the lack of an official major, most felt that there was a community within the program so long as one sought it out.

  “I’ve made some of my best friends from creative writing workshops, especially nonfiction workshops,” Muncy said. “People come in and they’re like, ‘Here’s a story about my sh-tty dad.’ So by the end of the semester, you know everyone’s trauma, all the ins and outs. You really just start rooting for each other.”

Foley, in reference to her experience with the Writers in Paris program — one of three eight-credit summer intensives offered, with the other two located in Florence and New York — said, “I think that people are willing to get to know others in the program, share their work, and be supportive of one another.”

Many of the students interviewed said they aspired to study in the graduate program — in fact, everyone that expressed an interest in an MFA named NYU’s program as their first, and often only, choice.

“Considering the staff and the fact that I’m never leaving New York, the NYU MFA is my top choice,” Borromeo said. “I pray that I get in.”

Every semester, the program offers a handful of undergraduate master classes, which require an application for admission and are taught by the program’s most acclaimed faculty — past instructors have included Rick Moody, Eileen Myles, Zadie Smith, Rachel Zucker and Anne Carson, to name a few.  

“Everyone was such a genuinely good writer, and we all cared about writing so much,” Muncy said of her master class with Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides. “You could tell that everyone just loved to be there, and we all respected each other immensely.”

“Professor Eugenides was the first writing professor I’d had who would tell something to you straight,” Muncy said. “He’d be like ‘This isn’t working. Your heart isn’t in this.’ He made my friend cry once, but after she was like, ‘This is the best thing that ever happened to my writing.’ After taking that class I was able to finally be like, ‘I’m a writer.’ I hadn’t had the courage to say that about myself before.”  

This semester, the program is offering master classes with professors such as poet Nick Laird, winner of the 2005 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and Ishion Hutchinson, winner of a 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award and 2019 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in Poetry.  

Students all indicated that the faculty is generally excellent and supportive.  

“The professors will offer you their time and guidance; they want you to get published and succeed more than anything,” Muncy said. “You have to dedicate yourself to writing, but the program will be there for you if you do.”

A version of this article appears in the Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 print edition. Email Julie Goldberg at [email protected] .

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Published September 14, 2021

5 Things You Didnʼt Know About Being an NYU English Major

Staff Writer

With over 170,000 words in the English language, it makes sense that being an NYU English major opens up an array of academic opportunities and a world of career options. “If you want to major in English at NYU, my advice is to go for it,” says Elena Guerra, an English major on the creative writing track. “With the incredible flexibility of the program and the diverse classes that are available, you can personalize your English major to be exactly how you want it.” So, whether you’re studying African feminist writing in Accra or delving into the history of cinema as a Dramatic Literature major, the English department will expose you to great books, great minds, and great possibilities.

1. You Can Choose Your Own Adventure

English majors have their choice of three paths at NYU: English with a literary studies concentration, English with a creative writing concentration , and Dramatic Literature . But how do you decide which route to take? Students on the creative writing track study literature with a focus on the craft of writing, including analysis and revision. On the other hand, the interdisciplinary Dramatic Literature major unites literature, performance, and playwriting. “The creative writing track is great for anyone who wants to explore their options,” affirms Elena. “You get to play around with writing, discover some new styles, and learn from some fantastic professors while doing so.”

2. You Can Study with Honors

As an NYU student, you’ll take rigorous, exciting classes no matter what you study. But for those particularly ambitious—and exceptionally talented—English majors, there’s the English Honors program . In addition to the standard 10 English course requirements, honors students take the Senior Honors Thesis and Senior Honors Colloquium. These small classes focus on scholarly conversation, research, and methodology and include guest speakers and presentations. The competitive program culminates in writing a 40- to 60-page thesis during your senior year.

“Being a part of the English Honors program was, without a doubt, my favorite aspect of my NYU experience,” says Hanna Saadat Khosravi, an English and History double major. “Like many avid readers, I spent years amassing texts and ideas that I hoped to write about one day. The program grants students the opportunity to dedicate a year to pursuing their personal, carefully honed literary interests. Additionally, the opportunity to learn from a professor one-on-one is like attending a personal seminar every week. It’s a truly remarkable academic experience.”

3. You Can Take Your Talents Abroad

The best cure for writer’s block is a change in perspective. And the best way to do that is to see the world while you study abroad . NYU English majors can follow in the footsteps of literary giants, studying Nietzsche in Berlin or Kafka in Prague. NYU London offers a number of courses on literature and theatre, with a side of Shakespeare, complemented by excursions to plays, museums, and galleries. There are also a variety of other study away sites that are eligible for credit toward the major. These include Abu Dhabi, Accra, Buenos Aires, Florence, Paris, Madrid, Sydney, and Tel Aviv.

4. You Can Save Lives and Deliver Justice

College is a time of exploration, and one of the many benefits of a liberal arts education is that you’re not limited to one field of study. At NYU, we encourage undergraduates to keep their academic and professional options open and engage with the world around them. That’s why prelaw and prehealth aren’t majors. Instead, any aspiring lawyer can self-identify as prelaw while majoring in the subject of their choice . Likewise, as a prehealth English major, you can prep for med school while honing your craft as a writer. After all, the best lawyers and doctors come from a variety of backgrounds and bring a wealth of knowledge to their practice.

5. Your Degree Can Open Doors and Turn Pages

In addition to journalists and authors, NYU English alums have become professors, judges, CEOs, doctors, and architects. That’s because English majors develop the skills to be exceptional writers, problem solvers, and collaborators, making them prime candidates for pretty much any job. “I selected English as my major because it would allow me to read and write bountifully for four years. But what I quickly realized was that my English major would also teach me how to read. That means learning how to think, analyze, critique, empathize, and interpret not only literature but also the world around us. It is the greatest gift that my time at NYU gave me,” attests Hanna.

Postgraduation, Hanna will work as a researcher and assistant editorial producer, focusing on research for visual storytelling projects. “While working on my thesis, I realized how fulfilled I felt by my research. Telling human stories is essential to building a more just and compassionate future, and that is always my goal,” she explains. So whether you want to use your words to change the world or just hone your writing skills, an English major will allow you to turn the page and start your next chapter.

This or That: English vs Comparative Literature

Have a deep-rooted belief that the book is always better than the movie but not sure what to study? Learn the differences between two majors that might be of interest.

A Creative Writing Minor Complements Any Major

Across majors and around the world, NYU students find the value in a Creative Writing minor.

Navigating Study Away

Interested in study away opportunities? Learn about all of the different programs and the benefits of each.

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Creative Writing

Creative writing experiments.

Creative Writing Experiments provides a foundation in at least two genres or areas of creative writing (i.e. fiction, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, creative nonfiction, literary journalism, memoir, and/or translation). The conversations and writing assignments will be guided by a reading list that emphasizes modern and contemporary global voices. Students will write extensively and participate in workshops as they experiment with various forms and techniques. They’ll look at published works alongside student works-in-progress to better understand the strategies of creative writing. The goal is for students to practice and refine techniques drawn from a diversity of approaches, explore them through their own creative pieces, and to leave the class with a heightened appreciation for the complexity of making creative works.

Creative Writing Studio

Creative Writing Studio provides a focused workshop in one genre or area of creative writing (i.e. fiction, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, creative nonfiction, literary journalism, memoir, or translation) with an emphasis on modern and contemporary global writing. The course situates creative practices within the cultural context that shaped the particular genre or area of creative writing at the center of the course—in fiction, for example, magical realism and its ties to Latin America, the varied approaches to memoir across different cultures, or the haiku or tanka and its connection to Japan and East Asia. Central to the course is the development of students’ own creative skills and practices. Students will write extensively and participate in workshops as they explore various approaches and techniques. They will look at published works alongside peer drafts to better understand the craft. The goal is for students to become more skilled at writing and revising creative pieces of their own, and to leave the course with a stronger understanding of the strategies, elements, and imaginative possibilities of one area of creative writing.

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